


Specter Detected

by rayghosts



Series: Phic Phight 2020 [3]
Category: Danny Phantom
Genre: Alternate Universe - Original, Gen, Major Character Half-Death, Phic Phight, Phic phight 2020, Scrapped Concepts, original concepts
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-11
Updated: 2020-04-11
Packaged: 2021-03-01 22:48:20
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,077
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23594833
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/rayghosts/pseuds/rayghosts
Summary: Ever since a work accident caused Jack and Maddie to retire from ghost hunting, Danny took up the family business and proved himself to be a formidable hunter...until, one night, he comes across a ghost from his parents' past.Based on gottacatchghosts(octolingkiera)'s Phic Phight prompt: "Danny Phantom and the Specter Detectors, an AU based (for the most part) off of the original concept for the show. Danny is fully human, rides a motorcycle, has a pet owl, and hunts ghosts with his friends."
Relationships: None
Series: Phic Phight 2020 [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1690195
Comments: 5
Kudos: 26





	Specter Detected

**Author's Note:**

  * For [gottacatchghosts (octolingkiera)](https://archiveofourown.org/users/octolingkiera/gifts).



Danny zoomed across the city on his motorcycle. Up above him flew Spooky, his trusty pet owl and most reliable ghost detector. He had technological detectors, of course, but none were as accurate as an animal's natural senses. Spooky could tell whenever a ghost was nearby.

"Find anything on your end?" Sam's voice came through their psych link. An explanation should probably be mentioned here--Danny and Sam didn't actually share a mental connection. Instead, they used a microphone and radio in their ear that was built by Tucker. It could pick up the softest whisper, useful for talking to each other quietly during class. The trio liked to jokingly call it a psychic link, and the name stuck.

Danny used one hand to press on the psych link in his ear and spoke, "Spooky sensed a ghost. I'm following her now." The owl picked up speed as they neared their target, and Danny revved his bike and sped after her.

They arrived at an empty building near the edge of town. It looked like it hadn't been used in a long time; he wouldn't be surprised if it was about to be demolished soon. Spooky landed in front of the door and tilted her head back to stare expectantly at Danny. He hopped off and parked his bike, gave Spooky an appreciative scratch on her head, and approached the building's entrance.

As soon as he stepped in, he could tell a ghost was nearby, and a strong one, too. A chill pervaded the place which set Danny's hairs on end. He pulled out an ecto-gun as he delved deeper into the building.

The cold grew in intensity in a spot just behind him, and Danny whipped around and swiftly released a shot from his gun. A glowing ghost flickered into appearance and was thrown back from the attack.

Danny kept his gun up and observed the ghost. He wore a hospital gown, which wasn't new; hospital gowns were basically a hot fashion trend for ghosts. What did set this ghost apart, though, were the numerous spots all over his skin that would have looked like normal acne if they weren't glowing green.

"Alright, ghost," Danny adressed him. "I'm sure you've heard of me, so let's make things easy. Stay away from the human world, and I won't have to kick your ghostly behind."

Rather than cower in fear, the ghost chuckled. "So it's true," he said. "Jack and Maddie's son took up the family business."

Danny froze. "You know my parents?"

The ghost hovered above Danny and looked down at him. He shouldn't have looked scary, being a scrawny college-aged man with pimples, but he did. Danny trained his gun on him, but curiosity held him back. "Know them?" the ghost said, his voice deep and echoing. " _Please._ I worked with them."

And then, taking Danny by surprise, he snatched the gun from him too quickly to leave room for reaction. He held up the weapon and tilted it around like he was inspecting it. "The basic design is the same as what we thought up, but there are a lot of modifications too," he noted approvingly. "I suppose you must have built your own weapons, then."

Danny didn't understand what was happening. All he knew was that this was a ghost, and he hunted ghosts, so he pulled an ectoplasm-coated dagger from his boot and gripped it readily. "Who are you?" he demanded with a glare.

The ghost raised one eyebrow. "Don't tell me. Your parents never told you about the third member on their team? The one they hospitalized?"

Danny faltered. His parents never mentioned, but he knew an accident had occured that made them quit their job. He had always assumed it was his dad's missing leg...but...

He shook his head. "No. You're lying."

"Am I, now?" said the ghost with curled lips. "Jack Fenton and Maddie Torrance--or I suppose she's a Fenton, now, too. Went to a college in Wisconsin, studied the paranormal, made loads of inventions related to that. I bet Jack still blathers on about the subject even after he quit, doesn't he? They made a portal, no doubt, and it worked, but it also caused an explosion when it turned on that cost Jack his leg...and me my life."

The ghost waited patiently for Danny to respond, but he didn't know how. Everything he said about his parents checked out. That must mean...the last thing was also true.

The ghost smiled at seeing Danny's helpless expression. As the teen watched, he took his gun apart as easily as if it were sheets in a notebook. Danny and Tucker had worked on that weapon for a week, and this ghost crumbled it before him like a goldfish cracker. "I suppose I should introduce myself," he said, wiping his hands on his hospital gown. "My name is Vlad Masters. Since you've doubtless interacted with many ghosts before, you know my motivation, so let's make things easy. Let me have my revenge on your parents, and I'll leave you alone."

Danny wasn't sure what to feel at first, but now he was filled with protective rage. _Nobody_ threatened his parents. He gripped his dagger and lunged at Vlad.

Danny would later berate himself for not being more careful. He knew Vlad was a powerful ghost, yet he acted recklessly and thought he could take him head on. Oh, how he would regret that. He didn't last a second after lunging before Vlad gripped his wrist and shoved him against the wall.

"Very well," Vlad said with a sneer. "You've picked your choice."

Danny could just pick up a distant flapping of wings from out the door--Spooky must have sensed him in danger and went to call reinforcements. Until then, he was all alone.

His dagger lay out of reach on the floor after he dropped it. He still had a few weapons hidden in his trenchcoat, but it was difficult to reach them with Vlad's claws digging into his skin.

Vlad grinned, and up close, Danny could see a pair of fangs in his mouth that made the ghost look like a vampire. "I should thank you, really," he said. "Going after Jack would have been great, but his son? That would cause _so_ much more agony."

A sharp, burning sensation spilled into Danny's bloodstream, like poison injected from Vlad's claws. Danny bit his tongue until it bled to keep himself from screaming. He kicked and thrashed, but his feet went right through Vlad's body. The ghost laughed.

All that thrashing wasnt for nothing, though, because it made Vlad lose his grip on one of Danny's wrists. Danny managed to free it and reached into his pocket, where he pressed on a device inside. All of a sudden, a burst of electricity was released, which fried them both but affected the ghost more than the human. Vlad shrieked and retracted his claws. Danny landed on his knees, breathing heavily, but he smiled at the ghost.

"You didn't think it would be that easy to get me, did you?" he taunted.

Vlad gave him the stink eye for the unexpected shock, but it wasn't long before he reverted back to his grin. "But of course," he said. "I already did."

Danny didn't get it at first. Then he noticed that the pain in his veins wasn't receding--if anything, it grew worse. His whole body felt alight as liquid fire burned underneath his skin. More and more the pain grew, breaking through his skin and bubbling up his throat until he could no loner hold it back. His scream mixed in the air with Vlad's laughter.

Danny tried to fight the pain, to see through the black spots dancing in his vision. The small part of his brain that wasn't shrouded by agony informed him that his friends' voices were speaking through his psych link, but he couldn't answer them if he tried. He wasn't sure whether he was suffocating or hyperventilating, but either way, his lungs were in torture. He managed to look at his closed fists touching the floor and thought the pain must be making him delusional...glowing green bumps were rising all over his skin. They looked exactly like Vlad's ecto-acne.

"Doesn't it feel great?" Vlad jibed. "Being boiled inside out, a million needles pricking at your skin... That's how I felt during my brief time at the hospital, before my body could no longer handle all the ectoplasm and still stay alive."

"Fuck you," Danny gritted out.

Vlad tsked. "Language, boy," he chastised. "Do I need to wash your mouth with soap before you die?"

Danny felt he couldn't take another second of this without collapsing. Luckily for him, it was in that moment that an ectoplasmic ray hit Vlad's side and knock him away. He saw the steel soles of Sam's boots enter his vision, followed by the girl herself as she crouched before him. "Danny!" she gasped.

A second set of footsteps approached as Tucker slid next to Danny. He recoiled at the sight of his friend's ecto-acne and asked, "What happened?"

Danny wanted to shout, _The ghost did this! Be careful of him!_ but the pain muddled his thoughts, and what came out was instead something really intelligent like, "Uuugghghhhh..."

Sam turned and stood as Vlad rose again. She trained a weapon at him while Tucker remained by Danny's side.

Vlad's fists glowed with pink ectoplasm for a second, but he waved them off and said with a sneer, "No problem. I've done what I came to do."

He turned intangible to phase backward through the wall, but Sam reacted quickly. "Oh no you don't!" she shouted and shot him with her gun. The blast hit him before he could leave, causing him to grunt and lose hold of his intangibility. Sam took this opportunity to grab a Fenton thermos from her belt. With the container aimed at him, Vlad only had time to widen his eyes at the glow emanating from it before a beam of light sucked him in.

After closing the lid on the thermos, Sam glanced back at Danny and saw him still doubled over in pain. She shook the thermos violently and said, "Undo whatever you did, or I'll turn you into soup!" Whether Vlad heard her or not, the effects of his powers seemed to dissipate. Danny took in a deep gulp of air as the pain receded and the ecto-acne on his skin faded away.

"You okay, man?" Tucker asked. Danny looked up at him, and Tucker felt goosebumps rise on his arms--he thought, for a second, that Danny's eyes were glowing green. However, the glow was gone with a blink, and Danny's tired blue eyes were gazing back at him.

"I think so," Danny replied. He exhaled. "That was intense."

"No kidding," said Sam. "I don't think we've gone against a ghost with powers like that before. Well, except for that one giant bug."

Tucker was staring at Danny, but he looked up at Sam's comment and shuddered. "Oh god, that bug. Don't remind me," he said.

"You weren't even the one who got stung," Sam replied with a roll of her eyes. She sat down next to Danny and said, "It's just your luck that you always get targeted by the worst ghosts, huh?"

Danny tried to shrug, but he was still pretty shaken from what had happened, and it came out more like he was trying to touch his ear with his shoulder. "Well, I did form this team, after all," he said with a weak grin.

"Yeah, but you're obviously not the best, since I just saved your butt again," Sam said with a light nudge. Danny chuckled.

A flap of wings alerted him to the owl that flew to them. Danny smiled and sat himself up. "Hey, Spooky," he greeted his pet.

Spooky approached Danny, and he held out his hand for a scratch. But the owl paused. Suddenly, she began screeching and flapping her wings, her feathers puffed out and her pupils small dots.

"Woah, girl!" Danny cried and retracted his hand. "What is it?"

Seeing as she was a bird, Spooky didn't reply, but she did take flight again. She sped out the building so fast that she shed some white feathers behind.

Tucker stood up and ran to the open door, but by the time he reached it, Spooky had already flown miles away. "I think your pet just ran away," he told Danny.

Danny frowned. "She'll come back. She always does," he said, but he didn't sound so sure this time.

Sam was observing Danny. "Why did she react that way? She never does that unless..." She narrowed her eyes.

Danny caught her staring and raised his eyebrows. "Wait, are you suggesting I'm a ghost?"

Sam's hand rested on the thermos. "How do we know you're not possessed or anything? Say something only Danny would know." She thought about it for a second, then asked, "How many moons does Venus have?"

"That's a trick question," Danny answered easily. "Venus doesn't have any moon. Some scientists say it might have had one in the past, but then it got hit by another object and collided with the planet."

"Yep, he's Danny," Tucker said, walking back to them. "Unless he got possessed by the ghost of an astronomer, of course."

"I'm not possessed," Danny insisted. He glanced down doubtfully and added, "I have no idea why Spooky reacted like that."

The trio was silent for a moment. Then Sam hesitantly said, "Maybe there's some leftover ectoplasm on you from that ghost."

Danny slowly nodded. "Yeah. That must be it. I can ask my parents to decontaminate me when I get home."

"Are you sure you're okay, though?" Tucker asked worriedly. "I mean, it looked like you were in a lot of pain. And those weird ghost pimples--"

"I'm fine," Danny insisted. "I just need to get home."

His friends tried to help him stand up, but he brushed them off and said, "It's okay. I can walk on my own." He walked out the building and sat on his motorcycle, which was still standing where he left it.

Sam reluctantly gave him the thermos. "I guess we'll see you later, then," she said.

Danny took the thermos. The cold, buzzing metal set his hairs on end. As soon as he got home, he would release Vlad into the Ghost Zone. He clipped the thermos onto his belt.

"Yeah," he replied. "See ya." He revved the bike's engine to life and rode his way home.

As he sped down the streets with the wind whipping at his face, Danny's mind whirled with thoughts. His parents had a third partner who died? How could they have hidden something like that?

He was so lost in his thoughts that he didn't notice the motorcycle's handle disappear from under his grip until the bike veered sharply to the side. Danny was jolted into alertness and tried to grab the handles again, but for some reason, he couldn't touch them in time to stop the bike from falling onto its side. Reflexes built up from years of ghost-hunting was the only thing that allowed him to roll safely off the bike and onto the hard street. He spent several minutes gasping and wondering what had happened. He had been gripping the handles the whole time--he was certain of that.

After catching his breath, he stood up and walked over to where the bike lay on its side with the wheels still spinning lazily. He bent down to pick it up, but the strangest thing happened. His hands went right through. A chill ran across his body, and he jerked his arm back. The ecto-contamination couldn't have been so bad that he was starting to phase through stuff, could it? No, he must have hit his head too hard and was imaging things.

Danny gulped, took a deep breath, and tried to touch the bike again. He let out the breath he was holding when his hands connected with the steel. Danny picked up his bike, rode it again, and tried to pretend that nothing unusual had happened.

In no time, he reached the familiar structure that was the Fentonworks headquarters, his home. After parking his bike in the garage, Danny walked in through the door to find a note from his parents sitting on the counter, notifying him that they had went out for some late night grocery shopping. Danny's shoulders slumped. Guess he'll have to wait until they got back to check him out. He may be good with weapons, but his parents were the experts when it came to the biology aspect of ghosts.

Danny dragged himself upstairs to his room. He pushed through the door, sat on his bed, and then an alarm blared. He jumped and turned his head to the source of the noise. Sitting on his bedside table was a ghost detection device. Since owls were obviously not allowed in class, he wore the device to school in place of Spooky. Now, it was beeping, which meant that a ghost was nearby.

Danny turned in place and tried to spot an outline, or sense a chill, or any other sign that a ghost was around, but he found nothing. Then he remembered about the thermos on his belt holding Vlad. He set the container on his desk, at the far side of the room. The ghost detector fell silent, and he relaxed his shoulders, thinking that was that. But when he stepped back to his bed, the alarm resumed.

He looked down at the ghost detector with a frown. Could it be broken? Then a thought struck him, a terrible thought, and he stepped several feet away from his bedside. The beeping stopped. He took a few steps forward, and it beeped again.

The ghost it was detecting wasn't Vlad. It was him.

Danny picked up the device and turned the sound off. It lay silent in his hands, but the light on its surface still flashed to indicate that the ghost was around.

He knew it was impossible for the ghost detector to pick up mere traces of ectoplasm; it only detected full ghosts, and if they were really nearby. It couldn't pick up his signal from simple ecto-contamination...unless...

Danny's heart leapt with terror, and he hurriedly pressed a finger against the side of his neck. He emptied his lungs in relief when his fingers were met by a steady beat. He wasn't dead. Not a ghost.

Yet, for some reason, the ghost detector seemed to think otherwise. Danny eyed it with a frown. Maybe it was a glitch. In the back of his head, a little voice whispered that owls can't have glitches.

First it was Spooky freaking out, then the intangibility, and now he apparently had an ecto-signature. Danny had a sinking suspicion that whatever ghostly attributes Vlad left him were a little more permanent than usual. Danny forced himself to take deep breaths to keep himself from shuddering.

His parents weren't home, but he had to know what was happening.

He went downstairs. Or at least, he tried to, but his hand phased through the handrail he was leaning on and it caught him by such surprise that he fell forward. He shut his eyes, bracing for impact.

The impact never came.

He opened one eye and found himself hovering over the stairs.

Okay. Cool. Totally fine.

Danny thought about standing upright again, and his body moved its position to suit his needs. Danny, totally not freaking out, went the rest of the way down. As soon as he landed at the foot of the stairs, he sprinted to the laboratory in the basement.

No sooner had he stepped foot in the lab than the anti-ghost security whirred to life, and several ecto-guns came out of the wall and aimed at him.

Danny stepped out of the lab and shut the door behind him.

There was a bright green light in the room, and it took Danny blinking several times before he realized it was coming from his eyes. He pried himself off the door he was gripping and walked to the bathroom. Every step felt like a step closer to his doom. Once he was inside, he didn't need to turn the lights on to see the mirror reflecting his eyes. They glowed the same shade of green as many of the ectoplasm samples he used for his weapons.

It was official. He didn't know how, but...

But someone else did.

Danny sped upstairs to his room. The thermos was still sitting on his desk where he left it. He picked it up, fumbled with the lid until it opened, and hurriedly pressed the EJECT button.

Vlad was halfway out when Danny demanded, "What did you do to me?"

The ghost turned to Danny, looking extremely annoyed. He glanced him up and down and said, "I was _supposed_ to kill you, but seeing as you are still alive, I see I must have failed."

Danny gripped the empty thermos with shaky hands. "I'm alive, but you still did something to me. What was it? What did that ecto-acne _do?_ "

Vlad narrowed his eyes and approached Danny. The boy took a step back, and the room was covered in green. Vlad's mouth split into a mad grin, and he pointed out, "Your eyes are glowing."

Danny backed up until his thigh hit the desk behind him. He glared, which only made the his eyes glow more intensely, and said, "You didn't answer my question."

Vlad floated back, his eyes glinting. "You said it yourself--the ecto-acne did this to you. When I was infected by it, it was too much for my body to handle, and I..." He drew a line across his throat with one finger. "But you--the level of ectoplasm wasn't enough to kill you, but it was still enough to turn you into a ghost."

"You're not making any sense," Danny snapped. "A ghost can't be alive."

That glint returned to Vlad's eyes, and he said, "Exactly! You're a scientific wonder. This is much more interesting than if I had killed you."

Danny couldn't help the sense of unease that settled in his stomach as he listened to Vlad speak. Hearing him like that, he could easily believe that Vlad worked with his parents; he spoke about ghosts with the same level of excitement.

Danny shook his head violently and said, "No! I'm not a ghost. I _can't_ be a ghost. I'm a ghost hunter!"

"Perhaps this is a good thing," Vlad said with an amused smirk. "You could get to know the species you hunt a little better, eh? Maybe then, you'll think twice about shooting every ghost you meet."

Danny's breathing grew erratic. He clutched the thermos so hard his knuckles turned white. Then the sensation of metal was suddenly replaced by his fingernails and skin, and a clutter on the ground brought his attention to the thermos that was no longer in his hands. In fact, when he looked at his hands, his heart skipped a beat and his throat released a yelp when he saw that they were no longer there.

Vlad laughed boisterously. "Have fun with your ghost powers, Danny Fenton--or should I say Danny _Phantom?_ "

Danny scowled and willed his hands back into visibility. He was getting really tired of hearing Vlad's laughter, so he bent down and picked up the thermos again, this time aiming it at Vlad. The fear on Vlad's face was _almost_ enough to make this whole thing worth it, but then a sound came from downstairs that distracted Danny--the sound of the front door being unlocked.

Vlad took his opportunity to escape. "Say hi to your parents for me, will you?" he said and sunk through the floor. Danny cursed and tried to power up the thermos, but it fell through his hands again, and Vlad was already gone.

The ghost hunter heard his parent's familiar footsteps enter the house downstairs, but he didn't feel so eager to talk to them anymore. He sat glumly on his bed as the information sunk in, forming a swirling pit in his stomach.

Danny, the city's renowned phantom hunter, had become a phantom himself.


End file.
